1 Policy Statement

The University will provide all employees and their supervisors with an opportunity to plan, manage, review, recognise and improve individual employee performance.  Through performance planning and review employees and supervisors are able to clarify the employee's responsibilities, agree on standards of performance, plan work and development activities and provide feedback.

(Approved by Council June 1998)

2 Procedures

2.1 Supervision

Each employee will have a supervisor who will normally be the head of their work unit.

A supervisor is expected to provide leadership and support to employees for whom they are responsible and to monitor their performance.

An employee may request the Executive Director (Human Resources) to designate an alternative supervisor where a change would remove potential conflict of interests or contribute to more harmonious relations within the work unit.

All employees who assume supervisory responsibilities will have access to appropriate training in performance planning and review.

2.2 Performance review process

Each employee will participate in a performance review at least once each year.  All employees are to have a performance review linked to the University's goals and objectives completed by the end of February each year.

Annual reviews will:

• Assist employees to be fully aware of their responsibilities and duties and the effect which these have on the University's operations;

• Provide feedback to individual employees on the perceived performance of the responsibilities;

• Provide a basis for further professional development of employees;

• Identify employees whose continued high quality performance should be particularly recognised and rewarded or whose performance is a cause for concern and possible remedial action;

• Provide an opportunity for accelerated or additional incremental progression.

Review forms are available from the Human Resources website.  Each form contains the instructions for its completion and distribution.

The Reviewing Officer may consult other employees whose judgements they believe may be helpful in completing the review report. This will include the Reviewing Officer consulting directly with employees in the same or different Faculty/Section who manage the work activities of an employee on a day-to-day basis in instances where the Reviewing Officer is not directly responsible for the daily work activities of the employee. For example, where an employee is assigned to a Research Centre, the Reviewing Officer will seek feedback from the Centre Director on the employee’s research performance and future goals consistent with the Centre’s research objectives.

The employee will be encouraged to provide relevant information on their performance and take an active role in appraisal and planning.

The nominated Reviewing Officer will interview the employee who is the subject of the annual review and discuss past performance and future goal setting and development plans.

The employee must be given the opportunity to read, comment on and sign the report.

The Reviewing Officer will forward the completed report, via the relevant delegate to Human Resources for further action and confidential storage.

2.3 Rewarding employee performance

An employee will be eligible to receive an annual incremental increase after 12 months, at each step within the limitations of the salary range for the employee's classification level, until the top salary step is reached unless the employee's performance is assessed by the employee's supervisor to be unsatisfactory.  The employee's increment date is the date of appointment at that salary level, except for employees who have been promoted or have taken a period of leave without pay, in which case it is either the effective promotion date or the altered date as a consequence of leave without pay.

An employee absent for more than three months, in aggregate, may, if agreed by their supervisor in consultation with the relevant delegate, have the review delayed by the period of absence.  Any resultant incremental increase will also be delayed by the period of absence.

An accelerated incremental increase in salary may be recommended where the employee's performance consistently and significantly exceeds the agreed performance indicators documented in the BUILD Performance Management and Development Review form, provided that:

• an employee's incremental adjustment is made on one occasion only per year of completed service at the current classification level, ie on the increment date; and

• the number of increments (within the range of the employee's classification level) an employee can receive in any one year of completed service at the current classification level is two (2); that is, the annual incremental increase plus one additional incremental step.

Note: accelerated incremental progression may be granted on any step except where the employee is only one step from the top of the salary level.

An employee who has been paid at the top incremental step of their substantive classification level for a period of 12 months or more may be eligible to receive an additional incremental increase of 90% of the difference between the top step of the substantive classification level and the bottom step of the next classification level where their performance consistently and significantly exceeds the agreed performance indicators documented in the BUILD Performance Management and Development Review form.  The additional incremental increase is made once on the employee's increment date. The application of the additional incremental increase will be reviewed annually and continue only whilst performance continues to exceed agreed performance indicators. 

Additional incremental increases for employees at USQ Level 10 and Academic Level E will be managed on a case by case basis and advice should be sought from the Executive Director, Human Resources in this regard.

2.4 Managing underperformance

Where a Reviewing Officer is concerned with aspects of an employee’s performance, the Reviewing Officer must discuss these concerns with the employee, and in consultation with the employee, develop and document strategies to address the performance concerns.

Where strategies have been developed, documented and implemented and the employee’s performance continues to be unsatisfactory, the process outlined in Managing Unsatisfactory Performance will apply.

3 Other Policy Information